Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! This year, your friends at Suite 4 got you 12 marketing tips! Check back each day for a new one.
On The First Day of Christmas… Hashtags!
When used properly, hashtags (#) on platforms like Twitter and Instagram can help to increase your posts’ visibility and help Google find your content. Hashtags are indexed first. It could be argued that they are more important than other text in the post, which is indexed second.
Also important to note: some third-party apps that post on your behalf can cause issues with your hashtags indexing properly. For best results, post content in the app/platform itself. Remember: your account and the content you’re posting must be public for indexing to take place.
On The Second Day of Christmas… Facebook Advertising!
There are more than 1.7 billion active people on Facebook. That’s a lot of people! How do you reach them? If your organic content isn’t performing as well as you’d like, targeted advertising is a great next step to work in conjunction with your organic efforts.
Advertising on Facebook is a great way to stretch your marketing advertising dollars. At the time of writing, video ads are by far the least expensive way to advertise on Facebook.
On The Third Day of Christmas… Optimized Website Images!
Images that are too large and improperly named (for example, a file named 12588504031122687326.jpg) can hurt your search rankings! Files that are too large increase the amount of time it takes for your web page to load, which search engines (and humans) are not a fan of. Additionally, a name that is irrelevant to the image is also irrelevant to the search engine.
Naming them properly can help to tell the search engine what the image is about, and in turn, what the page could be about. Back that up with text and other properly named images on the page. Lastly, when you do choose a name for your image, don’t use spaces. Name your image, for example, “social-media-tips-and-tricks-for-small-business.jpg”. Be sure to use “-” where a space would be, as spaces can be converted into “%20”.
On The Forth Day of Christmas… Google AdWords!
One of the most successful ways to get new business is through Google Ads. Over 3 Billion searches are made each day on Google which means someone is almost guaranteed to be looking for your product or service.
With Google AdWords, you can create Search Ads which are shown in Google search results; Display Ads which are shown on partner websites with related keywords; Video Ads which are shown on YouTube; and Shopping Ads which are shown in search results with links to your product page.
On The Fifth Day of Christmas… Facebook Business Pages!
Facebook business pages allow you to reach some of the aforementioned 1.79 billion active monthly Facebook users. Recent updates to Facebook Business Pages allow you to feature specific products and services. You can even tag those products and services in your photos now. Provide something of value to your audience each time you post, and remember that the goal with social media (and any marketing effort) is to entertain and inform.
On The Sixth Day of Christmas… Google Analytics!
By using UTM codes and tracking on Google Analytics, you can know which marketing activities are attracting leads and which are wasting your marketing budget. From that, you can make decisions about how to optimize campaigns and increase your marketing.
On The Seventh Day of Christmas… Infographics!
Infographics are one of the best ways to grab your audience and hold their attention. They’re highly visual (which everyone likes) and are an easy way to educate your audience. Use an infographic to supplement the content in a blog post or create an infographic to highlight the benefits and features of a new product or service!
On The Eighth Day of Christmas… CTAs!
A Call-to-Action (CTA) is one of the most important elements on any marketing material – blog post, ad, website, postcard, email, the list goes on. A CTA tells your audience what to do, for example: “Call us today!” or “Download your free guide now.” CTAs should start with a verb, be short and to-the-point and tell the person when to do it (today/now). It should also be clear how they ought to complete the call-to-action – put the CTA on a button, link the text, or provide the phone number – whatever is most applicable for your CTA and medium.
On The Ninth Day of Christmas… Marketing Automation!
Marketing Automation is the best way to immediately connect with interested customers. Building out workflows (sets of emails that go out at designated times) based on what a potential customer has done on your page allows you to create an automatic and personal experience for them. It’s a great way to communicate with your potential customers, even when you’re not at your desk.
On The Tenth Day of Christmas… Canva!
Canva is one of the most useful apps whether you’re a designer or just someone who needs a nice image or graphic for a blog or social media post. It provides easy-to-use templates, graphics and fonts for designs, plus stock photos too! It’s always more effective to include a visual with any kind of marketing material, so if you don’t have Photoshop, make your life a little easier with Canva!
On The Eleventh Day of Christmas… Social Media Content!
Using a calendar is key when planning any content strategy. This is especially true for social media, as coming up with fresh ideas for posts every single day can be challenging. Make your life easier and create a spreadsheet or other content calendar to plug in holidays, events and other opportunities to post far in advance. Create themes for certain days of the week to ensure that you’re sharing a variety of entertaining, interesting and educational content.
On The Twelfth Day of Christmas… Email Marketing!
Marketing to your existing customer base is a great way to build your buyer community. Email marketing is a cost-effective and easy way to talk to your past and existing customers. The systems range anywhere from free, to not as free (they cost $$$), but they all get you more exposure. You can include deals, updates, new products, and helpful information that is relevant to the buyer, all using a relatively simple service.